Undone Understanding
by Daygoner
Summary: Companion piece to Surpassed Understanding, but can be read as a standalone fic. He understood all the facets of their relationship... or, at least, he thought he did. A fluffy NaruMai.


DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ghost Hunt, because there wouldn't be fans to write fanfiction for it if I did.

**A.N. **_This is the companion piece to 'Surpassed Understanding', but a bit fluffier and more in-your-face, which is odd 'cause this is Naru's POV on things. Please do review – all kinds of feedback are appreciated!! And, as always: enjoy!_

* * *

**Undone Understanding**

**Un**_**thinking**_

He was quite surprised at where they had left things. He wondered what he had expected; a kiss, perhaps, or an invite into her home – at the very least. But not this. He had walked her home and now he was walking back. Alone.

He sighed and stopped over-thinking things. She'd be there tomorrow, he told himself; there was always another day.

- - -

**Un**_**knowing **_

Naru knew how much she cared about him. And it wasn't that he was unappreciative of this – rather, it didn't really interest him. He lived to be puzzled, challenged, to learn. Granted, he hated making mistakes, but that rarely happened, so he had nothing to worry about. He wasn't looking for safety – devotion, love, happiness, it really didn't mean much to him. Perhaps he was just waiting for a mistake to change him?

But mistakes were impossible to make when you knew what just what to expect. And it wasn't as if she was hard to predict.

- - -

**Un**_**seeing**_

"Oooh, Naru, I'm gonna _kill _you!"

He was tall, dark and handsome; he was the epitome of intelligence and seemed to be pretty rich. He was the head of Shibuya Psychic Research and a celebrated ghost hunter.

"You're an obnoxious bastard. You're arrogant, rude and self-obsessed."

He could win over the world (or, indeed, the entire female population) with the little 'charm point' on his cheek. He was the king of witty comebacks and educated conversation.

"You have an answer to everything, don't you? Don't you give me that look; I'm not buying it this time, Naru!"

He was pretty much perfect in every way.

"God, what's _wrong_ with you?"

Naru sighed and brushed some hair out of his eyes. "What's wrong with _you_?" he countered, knowing that she'd not really see what he was trying to ask. She hissed at him, throwing up her hands in frustration. And at that point, he wanted nothing more than to do the same.

"I don't know why we even bother, Naru. You just refuse to see where I'm coming from."

- - -

**Un**_**willing**_

They weren't together, not really; it was more of a working-relationship, though 'working' was certainly a debatable term. If normal couples had their 'ups and downs', then he and Mai had 'soars and plummets'. The thing was, was that they plummeted a lot more than they soared and the muddy grounds of tense ignoring and tight body language would always suck them in invitingly when they each took the plunge.

"Stay the night," she asked him – ordered him, really. He ruffled his figurative feathers in surprise as she reached out and held on to the sleeve of his shirt tightly, invitingly.

He stared at her hand for a long moment and she slowly let go of him, shrinking away shamefully. It disturbed him that he could read her so well, even without seeing her expression. He extended a tentative finger to lift her chin, willing her to face him - and she swallowed audibly. "Where am I sleeping?"

By the time she got over her shock and took his hand in hers, there was a new sense of surety in her grasp and confidence in her gait. Trying to absorb some of this feeling, he curled his fingers back over hers and allowed himself to be led. The slight flush in her cheeks told him that he was not alone in this – they were taking the plunge again. Together.

- - -

**Un**_**enlightening **_

"Can I come in?"

He pressed the covers of the book he was reading together and nodded cautiously as Mai stepped into his room. "Is something wrong?"

She shrugged, striving to inject some casualness into the gesture but falling somewhat far off the mark. "Couldn't sleep."

"I have that effect on people." He smiled wolfishly and she blushed. Then she turned her round brown eyes onto him, imploring and shiny, and started walking towards the bed with soft purposefulness cushioning her footfalls against the floorboards. He watched her intently as she slid under the covers beside him, without asking his permission, and pried the book from his fingers.

"So… what are you reading?"

- - -

**Un**_**surprising**_

Naru found it odd that she lived a very sparse life; not much decoration, not too much colour, not a lot of knick-knacks cluttering her home. He had assumed that she lived a life in amongst pink frills and flowery pattern-work – something along those lines, something like that to match her equally bouncy and happy personality.

They sort of lived together in an edgy peace that Naru considered a lot better than he thought it'd be. He decided he rather liked her little home (but he'd never tell her that, no, no), liked the fact that he could find everything that he needed when he needed it and that there was just enough Mai-ness in the surroundings to keep him satisfied, but not overwhelmed.

It was strange, but that suited him fine. He had just never expected it to be this way.

- - -

**Un**_**changing**_

"I heard you talking with Takigawa-san today."

Mai blinked the sleep out of her eyes and her cheeks made a feeble attempt to blush. "Oh. Yeah. That. Um, how much did you hear?"

"Everything."

The feeble blush deepens into something a bit more acceptable. "So, er, what about it?"

"He wanted to know if I'm your 'boyfriend'." He phrased it with a questioning lilt.

"Yes." She ground out the word like it hurt to push it through her teeth.

"And you said…?"

Mai glared at him this time, twisting fully so that she had an elbow propped up against her pillow to look him in the eyes. "You said you heard the whole thing; why are you asking me if you already know what my answer was?"

Naru gave a dry chuckle that made her hair stand on end. "Maybe I just want to hear it for myself."

Mai glanced away. "Ask me again."

He sobered immediately. "…Are you my girlfriend, Mai?"

She looked back at him. "Yes." She paused. "But you're not _my_ boyfriend. There's a difference."

- - -

**Un**_**resisting **_

"Naru, all I want is for you to forget about work for two freaking hours – just _two_! Is that seriously too much to ask?"

"What do I pay you to do? Take me out for coffee breaks?"

"Well, I'm sup_posed_ to be your girlfr… I mean, you're not supposed to pay me to have fun with you, Naru… That's kind of the point…"

A sigh. "…Well, maybe you should _shut up_ and do the things that I _do_ pay you for."

"Oh, and what's that? Run around and make you tea? Get attacked by stupid ghosts and spirits? Bend over backwards, just to kiss the floor beneath your oh-so-holy feet?"

"Well, if that's what you really want to do…"

Mai growled in fury and spat at him. "I've had enough." She grabbed her coat and flew out of the door, slamming it behind her in a rare show of utter contempt and rage.

Naru released a breath he didn't even know he was holding and slouched off to join his other assistant in the next room. "God," he muttered, bracing himself against his desk and gripping the edge of the table tightly, "Bloody women."

Lin didn't even bother to look up from the computer screen. "Bloody hell," he corrected, tapping away at his research and leaving Naru to ponder what he meant into the silence.

- - -

**Un**_**assuming**_

He knew that if he left her to simmer for a while, she'd crawl back to him on her hands and knees, begging him to take her back. He _was_ amazingly gorgeous and wonderful after all – who could resist him? Certainly not plain, naïve, loving Mai. He was as good as forgiven, as far as he was concerned.

But when she _didn't_ climb into his bed that night, Naru began to suspect that Mai wasn't into the whole 'forgive and forget' thing.

"Bloody hell," he sighed, rolling over to gaze at the cold side of his bed, missing the sight of the creased pillow and mattress depression next to his.

- - -

**Un**_**erring**_

"…And then she stormed out on me, so now I don't – well, I don't really know what to do."

Naru looked to Ayako for help, but the Miko merely whipped out her nail filer and started to shape her nails with the utmost dedication. "What am I doing wrong?" Naru all but wailed when he got no aid from the unconcerned woman in front of him.

Ayako took note of his desperate tone and smirked inwardly. _Where was a camera when you needed one?_ Her outward expression, however, remained serenely oblivious to the young boss's plight. "What are you doing _right_?" she countered breezily, raising her hand in front of her to inspect her workmanship critically.

Naru stared at her for a while. "You and Lin should start a club or something," he muttered darkly.

- - -

**Un**_**deserving**_

"What, so you eavesdropped on our conversation?"

"Well, no, not exactly, but–"

"And now you want me to help you out 'cause you can't get Mai to talk to you?"

"As I said, it's not really–"

Monk-san howled with laughter, a cruel and faintly maniacal streak entering his eyes. "Hell no, Naru-chan," he hooted once he'd regained some of his breath. "This is all _your _doing. _You_ have to fix it."

Naru sat back in his chair and folded his arms stubbornly. "This is ridiculous. I don't need this."

The former monk leaned over the table between them and when he next spoke, his voice was so low that Naru had to strain his ears to hear his words. "If that's what you really think, then you don't deserve Mai at all." Monk-san mirrored Naru's stoic pose, proving that everyone could imitate the statuesque Naru-pout quite easily. "Don't look at me like that, Naru – you know it's true."

- - -

**Un**_**flinching**_

Masako had come to see him at work again. A movie or a simple walk, might, perhaps, help clear his thoughts and relieve him from work for a while, wouldn't it? He was just about to agree with her, however grudgingly, when she reached out and put a hand on his, passively guiding him to the door.

He stopped as she touched him. "Is something wrong?" she asked him softly, smile faltering as they halted.

"No," he said curtly, pulling away from her and using his hand to open the door for them. "After you."

- - -

**Un**_**forgiving**_

"This doesn't mean anything," she grumbled to him warningly as she clambered onto his duvet, not bothering to slip under the covers as gracefully as she had done on the first night. Her actions were thrashy, violent. He moved over slowly to give her room, but her aggressive vibes seemed to fill the small room and press in on him, nonetheless.

"Of course not," he agreed in clipped tones. Mai snorted her assent to this and curled a hand over the spare pillow. "I saw you go out with Masako today," she added, mumbling into the fabric she had smothered herself with. Naru couldn't tell how upset or agitated she was by this, so he settled for his most blasé expression and response.

"Yes, we went for a walk."

Mai was quiet for a while. "She's really pretty," she commented, still hogging her pillow and not looking at him. "And she really likes you."

As if Naru didn't know. "Yeah, well," he said, pinching the bridge of his nose in apparent frustration, "she's not the only one."

"Hey, I don't 'really like' you!" Naru suddenly found himself getting a decent head-pounding from her pillow as she protested to his statement.

He grinned deviously. "Who said I meant _you_?"

"…What, so there are other girls?"

Naru raised his arms defensively as Mai held up the pillow for another attack. "What can I say? Everyone loves me."

Mai groaned and tossed the pillow away forcefully before throwing herself against Naru and pressing into him tightly, one small hand grasping hold of his T-shirt to keep him close.

"This really doesn't mean anything," she told him again, breathing her words heatedly into his shirt. "I'm still mad at you."

"Ok," Naru said. She exhaled loudly to inform him of her exasperation and he smiled to himself. It was only later on in the night when he realised that he had – in a very roundabout way – called her 'pretty'. He quickly proceeded to thank God that Mai could sometimes be as dense as she seemed, because he'd be damned if she noticed this, too.

But then, it really didn't mean anything, did it?

- - -

**Un**_**wavering**_

True to her word, Mai remained distanced, bristly and even downright moody with Naru for the rest of the week. Which, he told himself, was a good thing, because it meant that he could focus more on his work instead of having to listen to her nagging him about how distanced, bristly and downright moody _he_ could be.

He didn't fail to notice, however, that she did things for him in ways she hadn't always done – even if it was with a sharp glare or haughty sniff by way of irritated accompaniment. She folded down the corners of the pages of notes that she thought would interest him, and brought him tea when he hadn't asked. She had fixed the thermostat so that it was always warmer in the evenings when he was working late. She had moved the lamp closer to his favourite chair, where he could now sit and read without straining his eyes.

So, even when she didn't come into his room at night, Naru found he didn't miss it as much. And there would always be a fresh cup of tea waiting by his bedside when he woke up in the morning, anyway.

- - -

**Un**_**veiling**_

"Lin, I'm firing her."

"Ah… you've had another fight, then? I thought we were going for a record there – two weeks without an argument…"

"I'm serious. I can't stand the girl." Naru collapsed into a chair and tossed away the files he was holding.

Lin paused to pick them up for his boss. "I don't think you understand," he murmured knowingly as he stacked the notes back on top of Naru's desk, "Even if you fire her, she'll never want to leave."

Naru snorted. It was only then that he realised what it was that he just couldn't accept about the girl. She was… solved. She didn't need to be discovered or 'figured out'. She didn't need to be unravelled or uncovered. She was just there, open and wearing her heart on her sleeve. And, Godammit, he just couldn't accept that she was not his mystery to be solved.

"Naru? Shall I leave the computer on for you?"

"…Yeah. Thanks, Lin."

- - -

**Un**_**yielding**_

"Can I come in?"

She pressed the covers of the magazine she was reading together and jerked her head in such a fashion that Naru thought she was giving him a spasm more than a nod. He stepped into her room. "What," she cut him off before he could even get his first syllable out, "can't sleep?"

He shrugged and leaned against the doorframe, attaining some of that relaxed calm that she had always envied. Bastard. "No, actually, I can't."

"Guilt has that effect on people." She glared at him icily and he had the good graces to look away. Then he turned his sharp dark eyes onto her, impassive and shaded, and started stalking towards the bed with harsh purposefulness echoing his footfalls against the floorboards. She watched him, dumbfounded, as he slid over the covers beside her, without asking permission, and took hold of the front of her shirt with his fingers.

"I'msorryforeverythingandyoudidn'thearmesayingthissodon'tyougotellinganyone."

Mai stared at him, scrutinizing him in a way that made his eyes water. "What was that?" she asked in an agonizingly slow tone.

Naru drew a deep breath and let go of her. "Nothing." He sat back, feeling her legs move uncomfortably beneath him. "It was nothing."

Mai reached over and slapped the upside of his head so fast that he would have missed it, if not for the slight pain that hit him soon after her palm had made contact with his scalp. "You idiot," she whispered, tone of voice resembling his own so greatly that he had to blink the shock out of his demeanour at hearing it, "That was the worst apology I have ever heard in my entire life."

Naru recovered enough to procure a decent scowl. "I wasn't apologising," he said, miffed.

"No, you weren't," Mai agreed wholeheartedly with a sneer. Naru decided she really was spending too much time with him and it was having a profoundly negative effect on her personality. God, he was a bastard.

"Fine, fine," he sighed, feeling defeated and stupid beyond belief. "I'm sorry. _Sorry_. There. Apologetic enough?"

He rubbed the back of his head and looked at the bedside cabinet as though it was the most interesting thing in the world. Mai hit him again to get his attention. "I haven't been sleeping too well, either," she told him simply as he glared at her and rubbed a hand over the _other _side of his head. She widened her eyes at him innocently, then lay back and opened the covers up. "That reminds me," she added as he crawled over to her side and pulled the duvet up to his chin, "I need to get money off Monk-san. I owe Ayako, now."

Naru couldn't be bothered to frown. "What for?"

"Won a bet to Monk-san, lost to Ayako."

"Bets? What were you betting on?"

"Monk-san didn't think you'd ever apologise to me." Mai turned under the covers to face him, though he was looking up at the ceiling resolutely. He could hear rather than see her smile as she said, "Looks like I'm gonna have to tell someone about this 'incident' after all."

Naru closed his eyes and breathed out of his nose. "And Matsuzaki-san? What was your bet with her?"

Mai laughed this time. "That I would never take you back!"

- - -

**Un**_**caring**_

They spent time in each others' rooms, now, though Naru felt a lot more satisfied when she chose to go to him instead of the other way round. Some things never changed, he told himself as she huddled against his chest; even Mai couldn't deflate his ego or dilute his arrogance.

…Well, maybe a little, but that was only when they were alone.

He stretched out his arms before they cramped in their positions under his head_… Ah, what the heck_. He hesitated, then rested one of his arms lightly over Mai's shoulder and curled the other around her head. He was beyond caring what people thought of him, anyway.

- - -

**Un**_**feeling**_

"You were hugging me! Admit it!"

"No, I wasn't."

"Yes, you were! Come on, I felt you – don't deny it!"

Naru made some funny gagging noises at the back of his throat and tried to stare her down. "You're being stupid again, Mai," he drawled emotionlessly, "Why would I hug you?"

Mai blushed. "I dunno." She looked up at him uncertainly and when she next spoke, there was a shake in her voice that made Naru want to grin. "Isn't this the part where you tell me you love me then kiss me senseless?"

He scoffed scornfully and leaned over her possessively, breaking his own rules about personal space and invading hers. "Wouldn't that be a bit too… clichéd?" He nudged her nose with his. "A bit too much like a chick flick movie?"

"I don't – I don't really know," she admitted, shame-faced. "I've… never kissed anyone before."

"Really?" There was no disguising his surprise at this fact. "Never?"

"Never."

Naru pulled away from her, though he still rested his arms on either side of her face. "Well, you're not missing out on much," he informed her, blinking at her speculatively as she frowned. "Kisses aren't what everyone makes them out to be."

"They… aren't?"

Naru shook his head. He was still close enough that Mai could feel the air movement, caused by this quick action, brush over her skin. Or maybe it was his breathing – she couldn't tell. "Not really. Maybe this isn't a good idea after all."

Mai grabbed hold of him before he had the chance to even start moving away. "But I like clichés and chick flicks," she said with a bit of hysteria, faltering when she realised he was grinning more than ever. She gulped audibly and reached out further to pull Naru's head down to hers. "And if it's as bad as you say it is, then I won't do it again, right?"

Naru laughed and his eyelids grew slack as he looked down at her. "I suppose. But then, if you don't try, you'll never know," he said, and pressed his lips against hers.

- - -

_**Understanding**_

It was nothing like he had expected. It was a mistake, a black mark on his spotless record. It was not safety, devotion, love or happiness. It wasn't even puzzling or mysterious – just stupid and trivial, sometimes solved, other times not, but usually a mix between the two.

It was never meant to be this hard, but then, he lived to be challenged. Solving something that was already solved? Well, he didn't really understand it himself, but he was up for it.

The problem would always be waiting for him in the morning, after all.


End file.
